To become a king and a magician

"Oh dear, this child..."

Upon seeing Grey's familiar face, Mary's eyes flickered twice. She waved her hand to disperse the illusion puppets around her and then came in front of her. She squatted down and looked Grey up and down several times, as if she were inspecting the completion of a puppet's creation.

Then—

"Xia Chuan, I'm very disappointed."

Even though she had no tears at all, Mary still pretended to be pitiful and took out a handkerchief from somewhere to wipe the corner of her eye.

"I never imagined you would grow up to be such a beastly monster. It is my dereliction of duty as the King's educator. *crying*"

"Hey, you—"

"Yes, I should have known. Xia Chuan, you're a teenage boy too, a perfectly healthy male. You must have desires in that area. Guiding you to understand that kind of knowledge should be my task."

That's enough—

"But I never expected that, even though you were already living with a beautiful young woman like me, you would still lay a hand on such a pitiful child!"

"boom!"

Seeing that Mary was constantly acting silly and getting more and more outrageous, Natsukawa Torama activated his enhanced magic without thinking and delivered a Hell Burial Chop to her head—incidentally avenging the previous sneak attack, and smashing her head directly into the ground.

"Are you done fooling around? Let's get down to business."

"Hehehe, just kidding. Natsukawa, you're getting a little boring."

"At least be mindful of the atmosphere. Can't you be a little more serious in front of the kids?" Natsukawa Tora rubbed his forehead. "I'm starting to regret letting Grey move in. Now that I think about it, any place with you around is a den of demons."

"uh-huh!"

"I wasn't complimenting you, if you straighten your chest out again, I'll slap your chest in!"

“Then you take the picture.” Meryl puffed out her chest more arrogantly. “I’ve said it so many times, but every time you’re the one who runs away because you’re shy. You’re only the same as Arthur in this respect.”

"Get out of here..."

Looking at Natsukawa Tora, whose cheeks were slightly flushed and who had turned his head away, and Merry, who looked smug, Gray, who knew nothing, tilted her head in confusion and then asked timidly, "Natsukawa-nii, who is this older sister? Are you related to Mom and Dad?"

"No, that's not true!"

Answer instantly!

Natsukawa Tora squatted down in front of Grey: "Grey, even if I really become a pervert and marry you in the future, I will never marry this scum of the earth. Only stupid creatures whose brains are controlled by their lower bodies would have feelings for her!"

"The flag has been raised, Your Majesty."

Mary gave Natsukawa Tora a playful slap on the head, then squatted down in front of Grey as well: "I'm sorry, sweet-talking little sister, but this big oaf of mine isn't what you think. If I had to say, we're actually the same kind of people as you and your master."

"With Master? So...Master and disciple?"

"Hmm, very smart." After patting Grey's head, Mary stood up and smiled, "Alright, let's stop joking. It's not good to stand here any longer. Let's go inside."

Upon hearing this, Xia Chuanhu immediately glared at her: "Isn't it all because of your messing around?"

"Hehe☆!"

29. Everyone's talking about ten years from now.

"Hmm, I see."

In the living room, after listening to Xia Chuanhu's explanation, Mei Li nodded slightly.

“I understand the situation. I feel very sorry and sympathetic for what happened to you, little Grey. I have seen many cases of people being worshipped as gods in the past, and I can understand your feelings and thoughts to some extent.”

patting Grey's head, Mary smiled and said, "But don't worry, you won't be treated like that anymore. No one here will continue to idolize you, and no one will change their opinion of you because of your appearance."

“Is…is that so?” Grey stared intently at Mary, her emerald green eyes flickering with a hint of doubt and confusion. “If that’s the case…no, actually…if someone hates my face…that would be for the best.”

Do you hate it?

Natsukawa Torato and Meryl exchanged a glance, and then Meryl suddenly picked up Grey and said, "I don't think anyone would dislike Grey. After all, Grey, you're so cute. Anyone who doesn't have a problem with their taste wouldn't dislike you."

"But I hate my own face."

"In that case, I'll cast a really, really powerful magic spell on you."

"magic?"

"Yes, it should be the best magic trick in the world for you."

As she spoke, Mary reached out and gently touched Grey's face, then led her to the window and said with a smile, "How about it now?"

"Huh?"

Grey looked in the mirror, and the moment she saw her reflection, she froze, standing there dumbfounded.

What was reflected in the mirror was an extremely ordinary face, the kind that would immediately remind one of a country girl.

It was a face completely different from her original one.

"This, this is..."

"Sister, I'm actually a magician just like your brother Xia Chuan, but compared to his half-baked skills, I'm much better," Mei Li said with a smile. "Moreover, I'm especially good at illusion magic. Right now, I'm just casting a simple illusion spell on you to change your appearance."

"As long as you don't meet someone with the same eyes as your sister, or someone who is naturally resistant to magic, you will always look like this in the mirror."

"Really?!" Grey looked at Mary with a mixture of tears and laughter. "Are you serious? From now on, my face will—"

"Yes, really. But, little Grey."

Before Grey could immediately cheer with delight, Mary stroked her head and said softly, "Illusion is ultimately just a trick, a trick used to deceive people, both others and yourself. Your sister's magic can certainly help you, but it doesn't truly change your appearance. Your true appearance is still that of the hero, and that's an unchangeable fact."

“You can’t keep lying. One day you’ll have to face yourself. I know that’s hard for you right now, so I want to make a promise with you here.”

Holding Grey's hand, Mary said, "Ten years. This illusion can last for ten years, and during these ten years, I hope you can gradually accept yourself as you are now. If you can do it, I will give you a big gift."

"Accept...who I am now?"

Grey looked at Mary with a puzzled expression. She didn't understand what Mary was talking about at all. Her appearance had been changed, so why should she accept herself now?

"I don't quite understand what you mean, sister."

"It's okay, you have ten years, you can take your time. For now, you should get a good night's sleep."

Mary snapped her fingers gently, and an overwhelming drowsiness immediately washed over Grey. Her eyes opened and closed, and then her head tilted to the side as she drifted off to sleep in Mary's arms.

After sitting on the sofa and seeing this scene, Natsukawa Tora sighed, "Let's leave it at that for now."

"Well, I'll take her to the second floor first and arrange a place for her to sleep. We'll deal with our business after that—after all, you have a lot to say to me, don't you?"

"What I actually want to say to you is as high as a mountain."

"It's only been a few days, and you miss me this much? What if you have to go on long business trips in the future—"

"Claws."

————————————————————————————

A few minutes later, after settling Grey in the room next to Natsukawa Torato's, Mary returned to the living room on the first floor and saw Natsukawa Torato staring blankly at a string of silver necklaces.

No, it's not quite right to say he was spacing out; it's more like he was staring intently at it, even trying to take it apart.

"Can't you take better care of it?" Meili tapped Natsukawa Tiger with a hint of resentment. "It's the first gift someone gave you, after all, and it has great sentimental value."

"But it has to be a real gift first."

Natsukawa Tora looked at Meryl.

“I met a magician at the cemetery. He claimed to be the head of the Atlas Academy, named Tsbia. He told me a lot of things, including about this necklace.”

"uh-huh?"

"This necklace can indeed hide the part of me that belongs to Arthur. In layman's terms, it's like setting an access lock. But when setting the permissions, you deliberately left a loophole, allowing LogosReact to detect my presence. That's why I experienced all those things before—I'm not wrong, am I?"

papapa!

Merry clapped her hands: "Yes, yes, absolutely right. Although I never intended to hide any flaws, after all, with your level of magic, it would be impossible for you to see through them, but... the Dean of Atlas Academy is truly an unexpected figure."

Wasn't he there when you went last time?

"..."

Seemingly surprised, Mary's eyes widened slightly. After a moment of silence, she smiled and said, "You even know this?"

"To paraphrase a famous detective, 'This is common sense, my dear friend.'" Natsukawa Tora shook his necklace. "Of course, that's all I can think of. After all, I'm not a real detective, and my brain isn't very sharp. It would be best if you could tell me everything."

"So, after I've told you everything, what are you going to do next?"

Mary leaned back on the sofa and asked with a smile.

Xia Chuanhu simply shrugged and gave up, saying, "What can I do? Since you want to scheme against me, I can't escape your plan no matter what. I just want to know your reasons for doing this. Why did you involve me in this potentially dangerous situation?"

"That's all I want to know."

30. Speculation about the future

What Natsukawa Tora was seeking was not a reason, but a purpose.

In a sense, these two things can be considered the same thing, but in some cases, they can also be seen as two different things.

After exchanging glances with Natsukawa Tora for a while, Meryl just smiled casually: "There's no particularly important reason, it's just that as an immortal being, I want to find some fun in my long and boring life. You should know that the longer you live, the less interested you become in the things around you, until you finally become a piece of meat with no life left."

“I don’t want to do that, so sometimes I’ll do things like this to have some fun – basically for that reason and purpose.”

"This was just a sudden idea. During the year I waited for you here, I didn't just stay in this dormitory all the time. I would occasionally go out and take a spontaneous trip. About three months ago, I happened to go to the Brakmoya Cemetery."

It was quite a coincidence. Mary didn't really know where to go for fun; she was just wandering around aimlessly when she stumbled upon the Brackmore Cemetery and came across the village and the secrets beneath it.

Honestly, even someone as worldly-wise as Meryl had never witnessed anything like it before. To take the resurrection of others as a mission and continue for hundreds of years—if it were a magician, that would be understandable, but none of those villagers were magicians; they were just a group of ordinary people who had mastered some skills.

After the initial surprise, what Mary realized was that it was interesting—undoubtedly a very interesting thing. A village that worshipped King Arthur, a vessel that existed to resurrect King Arthur, a weapon that simulated the spirit of King Arthur... Each of these was interesting on its own, but when combined, it was beyond simply being interesting.

So after that, Mary made a decision—after Natsukawa Tiger came to England, she insisted that he visit Blackmore Cemetery. She really wanted to see how Natsukawa Tiger's visit would affect the situation there.

To this end, she used illusion magic to impersonate Belsack's magician friend and suggested that he submit a request to the Clock Tower regarding the abnormal magical power. She created a Mystic Code with a flaw and gave it to Natsukawa Torama. As for how to get Natsukawa Torama there, even without the series of events caused by the self-defense training, Merry would have created some accidents later to guide him down the same path.

When this woman gets really ruthless, she'll stop at nothing!

"So, are you satisfied with my experience at the Brakmoya Cemetery?"

"Hmm... I'm half satisfied, half not, so overall it's just barely acceptable. According to my original plan, you should have achieved a spiritual fusion with LogosReact, evolving from half King Arthur to two-thirds King Arthur, but Arthur's manifestation in the world was really beyond my expectations."

To forcefully manifest in the world based on such a fragile relationship is not just a matter of low probability, but an almost impossible feat. It can be described as a miracle, a miracle that can only happen once.